Intense - 87%

The Amenta are fucking intense. After I was obliterated by there album “Occasus” I have been awaiting the release of there upcoming album for a long time, then I found this in 7” for sale someplace for 3 bucks. This is there debut EP and it contains two tracks that would later be found on there full length, as well as an exclusive track.

Mictlan and Ennea sound much more raw and angry on this album compared to there more polished full length. The production for that album is very clean and almost sterile. This EP gives the tracks a more hateful atmosphere.

Musically this is your usual brutal death metal assault (at least for side A anyway). The drumming is almost consistent blasting, the guitars playing violent riffs faster than imagination, the bass guitar is pretty non existent, and the growls show the same intensity as they will on Occasus. There here are a couple solos and Ennea has a slower more epic passage built into it, how structure wise The Amenta don’t present there trademark industrial metal song structures or various distorted effects on here.

The B side has a track called “Nekuia” which was never reproduced on Occasus. It differs little musically from the first two but there is a nice outro. The outro however shows signs of what would later evolve into the industrial ambient tracks like “Senium” and “Occasus” on the album that would follow this.

I could see this one day becoming a collector’s item, seeing as this album is pretty much only marketed to die hard fans. These tracks are being rereleased anyways so there really is no reason to turn the earth inside out looking for it. This is the equivalent of a demo, you get to hear the band with a more raw sound, but owning it isn’t essential.